Mile’s austerity pushes half of Argentina into poverty By Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Irma Casal, a 53-year-old woman from Buenos Aires, works three shifts as a garbage recycler, cardboard collector and bricklayer, but like many Argentines in a time of growing poverty, she is still struggling to make ends meet. meet.

Argentina will release poverty data on Thursday that is expected to show the rate rising to more than 50 percent in the first six months of the term of libertarian President Javier Milea, who has adopted tough austerity measures in a bid to get the country out of debt.

“Since this government came to power, jobs have gone down. We are working twice as hard for less and we have to keep going,” said Casal, who has 14 children and 42 grandchildren, in the low-income suburb of Buenos Aires, Villa Fiorito. .

The official data for the period January-June will be the first concrete evidence of how much poverty has increased since the takeover of Mila in December. The official poverty rate was 41.7% for the second half of 2023.

Mila’s spending cuts have been cheered by markets and investors for helping to restore the state’s finances after years of deficits, but have pushed the country into a deep recession, although there are signs the economy may now bottom out.

The Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA) estimates that the poverty rate rose to 55.5% in the first quarter of the year before falling to 49.4% in the second quarter. That gives an average of 52% for the first six months.

Agustin Salvia, the director of the UCA Observatory, said that there was a significant impact at the beginning of the year from Mila’s policies, invoking the closure of shelters and the reduction of government subsidies. However, there have been signs of improvement recently, he added.

“If you look at the whole story, it shows a deterioration in the first quarter. The situation has since started to ease,” he said.

The Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence and Family told Reuters this week that the government had expanded two social assistance programs, the Universal Child Benefit and a Food Card program, which helped support many families.